106 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
finest fruit, and the most regular-coloured I ever grew or saw, I cut on the 17th 
of October last; it was 23^ inches in circumference, 15^ inches high, and weighed 
11\ lbs.—a very noble and good-looking fruit. 
Charlotte Rothschild is also allowed to be a pretty good Pine. I have grown 
some handsome, weighty fruit of it, up to 8 lbs., but rather fear it is a tender, 
soft, not very good-keeping fruit. When well-grown and finished it will, like 
the Prickly Cayenne, and some other varieties of that strain, early discolour 
after being well ripened. 
Providence I grow only a few plants of—the White variety, of course. When 
well erown from a good-selected stock, for years past, it is not only a noble plant, 
but produces very noble fruit, having grown many from 10 to 12 lbs.; and the 
largest and handsomest I ever grew was three years since—it weighed 13f lbs., 
was a truly handsome, well-coloured and well-finished fruit. 
Sugar-loaf varieties, of which I grew handsome fruit for some years, I have 
almost discarded of late years. After all the varieties I have cultivated within 
these last forty-five years or more, there are but really few varieties, taking all 
into consideration, that are really capable of being profitably cultivated. I have 
seen and cultivated many more varieties than I have enumerated, and, after proving 
them, discarded them as not worthy of culture. I have three or four useful 
seedlings, one in particular for winter use, being a handsome good sweller, but 
never above three or four pips high, consequently it does not run very heavy, but 
its flavour is always well spoken of; still, as none of them are superior to our 
best varieties, little need be said of them. 
JBicton. James Barnes. 
OUR CONTEMPORARIES. 
L’Illustration Horticole. —This is edited by M. Lemaire, Professor of 
Botany, published by M. Axnbroise Verschaffelt, of Ghent, and profusely illus¬ 
trated with good coloured plates. The January part contains the following : — 
Amorphophallus nivosus. —A singular Aroid, discovered in 1863 by M. Bara- 
quin, in the province of Para in Brazil. From a tuber as large as a man’s 
head springs a tall stem, or rather columnar leaf-stalk, surmounted by three 
compound leaflets, forming a spreading head like that of a Palm. The leaf¬ 
stalk is brownish, elegantly blotched with white and red, like the skin of a 
serpent, and, like it, giving the idea of something poisonous. This plant 
appears to be the colossus of the genus; for w'hilst Amorphophallus campanu- 
latus, which is considered the typical plant, has leaf-stalks not exceeding 2 feet 
in height, the plant of nivosus, exhibited at the Brussels Exhibition, was 8 feet 
high. Accompanying the description is a lithographic plate of the stem-section, 
together with the flower of campanulatus, and the dissections of its parts. 
Dipladenia nohilis. —Introduced in 1847, this plant had disappeared from 
cultivation till a short time ago, when M. A. Verschaffelt received it from the 
province of St. Catherine, in Brazil, where it was first discovered. The tuber 
is of irregular shape, and found in alluvial soil, which, in the rainy season, is 
submerged; but when the waters have subsided it sends up its slender twining 
stems feet long, terminating in a long raceme of large rose-coloured flowers, 
but which are sometimes tinged with purple or orange, or all three colours 
combined. This is not the same plant as that represented in the “ Flore des 
Serres” of February, 1849, and the editor gives an explanation of how the 
mistake arose. 
Camellia planipetala. —A finely-imbricated pure white flower, with a slight 
tinge of sulphur towards the centre ; the plant is free-flowering, and has hand¬ 
some foliage. 
In addition to the above subjects, the Number contains a large plate giving 
a perspective view' of M. Verschaffelt’s establishment. In the February part 
we find— 
